The invention relates to a method for manufacturing open porous light components of metal, metal alloys, plastic or ceramic of any geometry according to the teaching of claim 1.
For manufacturing components of high strength and stiffness with low densities, methods are known from the prior art where metals are foamed-up in the liquid state with suitable foaming agents, e.g. gases, to manufacture components with the above-mentioned characteristics. These known methods however have the disadvantage that through the injection of the gasses during the foaming-up process, bubbles develop which reach different, not clearly definable or foreseeable or desirable sizes. Thus, components are created by means of these methods which have mechanical properties that can only be assessed with difficulty. In addition, the bubbles penetrate up to the surface of the components and prevent the creation of a defined outer skin thickness, which would be necessary for a calculable structural function.
In addition, methods are known where inner casting molds of amorphous disorderly lattice structures are produced, which are cast in a casting device. With the help of these internal casting molds of connected individual balls, components with open or closed outer wall can be manufactured which have an amorphous undefined lattice structure in the interior, since the core stack used in the casting method is formed from an accumulation of disorderly inter-connected balls. In this case, too, a clear definition of the mechanical properties of the component is impossible because of the unpredictability of the disorderly lattice structure in the interior of the components.
The object of the invention is to propose a method which makes possible the manufacture of light components of metal, metal alloys, plastic or ceramic of any geometry, where, through a clearly defined inner lattice structure of the core stack, mechanical requirements such as density, stiffness or strength of the component are predictable, and, if required, a defined outer skin of desired thickness can be manufactured.
Under the general term “light and stiff” and/or “energy and sound-absorbent”, such components can be employed wherever moving masses for example have to have corresponding characteristics such as in vehicle manufacture for road or rail, in aircraft manufacture or machine construction/kinematics. In addition, components produced in this way are particularly suitable also for heat exchangers of any type through the open porous and orderly foam lattice structure, since they separate two simply connected spheres from each other.